Life-Saving ‘Fire Department’ App

Some truly exciting news today: San Fransisco is supporting a mobile app that has the potential to save lives. In fact, a whole bunch.

The application, Fire Department, when downloaded will ask if you are trained in CPR. By clicking ‘Yes,” the application will passively monitor your location without draining your battery. When there’s a CPR-related emergency — say someone suffering from a heart attack — 911 will be able to send out an alert to anyone near the heart attack victim with the app. The victim’s location will be sent through a push notification and, if available, the location of a nearby automatic external defibrillator. The process of notifications, taking mere seconds, are critical to anyone in need of CPR.